The Fletch Report: October 2nd, 2023

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Welcome back to The Fletch Report, your go-to weekly newsletter dedicated to bringing you the latest on University of South Florida's Olympic Sports. In this concise and informative newsletter, we'll dive into the highlights of the previous week's athletic events and matches, while also offering a glimpse of what's on the horizon.

USF Weekly Honors

More weekly honors for USF Olympic sport athletes after some thrilling victories this past weekend:

• Buse Hazan named to Weekly Honor Roll for women’s volleyball
• Kourie Peace Offensive Player of the Week for women’s soccer

USF Women’s Soccer: A Stark Defeat

Humbled Defeat: USF women’s soccer was looking to continue their momentum after their top 25 victory over Gonzaga the previous week by welcoming AAC foe ECU to Corbett Stadium. However, the Pirates played spoilers and were able to defeat the Bulls 2-0 to bring USF to 1-1-1 in conference play this year.

The Pirates, touting one of the best defensive units in the conference, were able to keep the Bulls at bay the entire game, limiting USF to a mere 3 shots on goal. ECU took the lead late in the first half, and was able to thwart any efforts by USF to equalize for the remainder of the game. A PK in the 71st minute but put the game out of reach as ECU continued to limit USF’s possession in the opposing side of the field all night long.

Look Ahead: USF will travel to an opponent for the first time in 2 weeks when they travel to Birmingham to take on UAB this Thursday at 8 p.m. EST.

Score Summary:

• ECU (L 0-2)

  • N/A

USF Men’s Soccer: Defeat in Miami

Couldn’t Contain the Panthers: The Bulls traveled to Miami to take on a formidable FIU team that was receiving votes in the Coach’s poll and riding back-to-back AAC victories. A scoreless first half saw the Bulls and Panthers trading blows, but USF goalie Alan Horrocks collected an astounding 5 saves in the first half to keep FIU off the board.

The second half adjustments by the Panthers saw the hosts find the back of the net twice in a ten minute span, giving USF a deficit to find their way out of. The Bulls were able to halve the deficit when they were awarded a Penalty Kick in the 83rd minute, which Jalen Anderson put away with ease, but with less than 7 minutes remaining in the match at that point, the Bulls could not find their equalizer and were defeated 2-1 and are now 0-2-0 to start conference play.

Look Ahead: USF men’s soccer will travel to Tulsa on Wednesday to take on the Golden Hurricane at 8 p.m. EST.

Score Summary:

• FIU (L 1-2)

  • Jalen Anderson

USF Volleyball: Swept the Blazers

How Sweep It Is: USF volleyball welcomed the UAB Blazers to the Yuengling Center this past Friday and Saturday and by Saturday evening the Blazers left Tampa with their tails between their legs.

Friday night saw the first sweep with both teams trading scoring runs in the first set. UAB pounced to a a bit of a lead and had some positive momentum swinging in their direction, but true freshman Miya Thomas helped swing the momentum back for USF, who served and assisted on the final 3 points in a 5-1 run to secure the first set.

The second set was smoother sailing, taking an early 8-2 lead and running through the set from there. Although UAB closed the gap late, it wasn’t enough and USF was at able to secure the second set. Finally in the third set, USF used a 6-0 run when the score was 13-12 to run away from UAB in the final stanza. Highlighting the final set was Buse Hazan, who lead USF in kills with 16, brought the Bulls to match point, and Maria Clara Andrade was able to kill off the Blazers.

On Saturday afternoon, the Bulls were able to dismiss UAB much quicker and snuff out any positive momentum the Blazers were attempting to gather. UAB kept the first set close, with USF only managing to win 25-23 where the Bulls went on a 4-0 run to win the set. However the 2nd and 3rd sets saw USF winning 25-13 both times where the Bulls had long stretches of runs to put away back-to-back sweeps against a conference opponent.

Up Next: USF, who is 10-6 overall and 4-1 in conference, will be on the road to two different conference opponents, first going to UTSA on Friday at 7 p.m. and then heading up to Wichita to take on the Shockers on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Score Summary:

• UAB (W 3-0)

  • 25-20, 25-21, 25-19

• UAB (W 3-0)

  • 25-21, 25-17, 25-19

Other USF Sports in Action

Similarly to last week, many additional olympic sports continue to compete throughout the fall calendar schedule.

• Men’s Cross Country continues steady improvement, finishing 5th (178 pts) out of 31 schools at the FSU Invitational 8k, ahead of FAU, LSU, and Miami.

  • Grad student Nickolas Kamen paced the Bulls finishing 27th out of 342.

• Women’s Cross Country also had a strong showing, finishing 9th (260 pts) out of 35 schools in the 5k, ahead of FAU and FGCU amongst others.

  • Senior Kelly Lynch paced the Bulls to finish 23rd out of 335 runners.

• USF Sailing competed in two regattas over the week

  • At the SAISA Conference Top 12 in St , the Bulls competed with 2 teams, the Varsity team finished 1st and the JV team finished 7th, ahead of FSU, NC State, Miami, and Florida.

  • At the Sugar Bowl Regatta in New Orleans, USF had a combined team score to finish 5th over extremely challenging conditions.

• USF Men’s Golf competed at the Windon Memorial Classic in Northfield, Illinois, finishing 4th.

  • Brock Healy lead the Bulls, finishing -7 and T9th

  • Jake Peacock was close behind, finishing -6 and T14th

• USF Women’s Golf, who was recently ranked #27 in the country by GolfWeek, competed up in Toledo at the Glass City Invitational, finishing 4th.

  • Senior Melanie Green continues to dominate, finishing T2nd at -4

  • Freshman Emma Falcher finished T7th at even par.

• USF Women’s Tennis is hosting the Bedford Cup at the USF tennis courts

  • In singles action, Melisa Senli dropped her match 0-6, 3-6 and Grace Schumacher lost her match 4-6, 4-6

  • In doubles, the duo of Nadja Bay Christians and Marta Falceto Font won their opening match 6-3, but lost in the semis 4-6

• USF men’s tennis competed at Chowderfest in Cambridge, MA last weekend, and some are having some one-off matches in the ITA All-American cup this week.

  • At Chowderfest on Day 1, doubles teams went 1-3 against the University of San Diego.

  • Day 1 singles saw USF go 3-5 against a combination of Harvard and USD players

  • Day 2 doubles faired better, going 3-1 against teams from Cornell and Tufts

  • Day 2 singles had the Bulls going 5-3 against singles players from Cornell and Harvard.